Ospreys show pleases Tandy

Ospreys coach Steve Tandy praised an encouraging performance by the region's young guns as they claimed a 26-21 LV= Cup victory over the Newport Gwent Dragons at the Brewery Field.

The Ospreys had entered the game on the back of their Heineken Cup humbling at Biarritz last weekend, but a matchday 23 that included six debutants showed plenty of promise in racking up a bonus-point win over their Welsh rivals in the first regional derby played in Bridgend since 2004.

And Tandy was happy with the efforts of his youthful squad, saying: "It was a pleasing performance. We showed good attacking intent and the crowd and the players enjoyed it."

Ross Jones, Hanno Dirksen, Eli Walker and South African centre Stefan Watermeyer crossed for the home side while fly-half Matthew Morgan landed three of the four conversions, although he would have made the victory more comfortable had he not failed with three penalty attempts and a drop goal.

Tandy added: "It was pleasing to get the bonus point, all in all we scored some good tries, but we probably left a few more out there, and if we had kicked goals it would have been a more comfortable scoreline."

The average age of the two sides on display was just 23, and the Dragons battled gamely in an open contest.

Their tries came from wing Pat Leach, returning after a long injury lay-off, and a last-gasp effort from replacement Luke Williams, with fly-half Steffan Jones adding three penalties.

The defeat all but ends their slim hopes of progressing to the last four, and assistant coach Rob Appleyard felt his side had been guilty of conceding some soft tries but was happy with the resolve they showed to finish strongly.

"It's been good for us," Appleyard said. "As well as getting some players back from injury we managed to get all our bench on and some of the guys will be better for it.

"We were disappointed to let some easy tries in, I am sure the Ospreys would say they were well created but we felt they were soft and we will have a good review next week and look towards the Saracens game. But it was good to see us pull it back with the last try and that gives us a chance to build for next week."